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Johannes Brahms, a great German composer of the Classical and Romantic eras
His works included four symphonies, piano and violin concertos, choral and orchestral compositions, chamber music, and a Requiem.
Much of his music is notable for its rhapsodies with strong and vigorous rhythms. His symphonies are large compositions replete with personal feeling.
His songs, which number 200 in all, are part of the German Lieder tradition.
From 1863 Brahms resided in Vienna and devoted his life to composition and the occasional tour. He never married.
Brahms Symphony No. 1 (1st Movement, Part 1)
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Amazon Price: $30.26 (as of 12/17/2009)
Brahms's First Symphony has been hailed as Beethoven's Tenth. Its controversial status and relationship in the Beethovenian tradition is considered alongside other important issues in the early reception history of this key work in the symphonic repertory. David Brodbeck begins with an account of the lengthy genesis and complicated background to the writing of the symphony, before providing a thorough critical reading of the work, movement by movement. In particular, Professor Brodbeck reveals a dense web of extra-compositional allusions--references in the music to works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, and Robert Schumann--in which, the author argues, much meaning resides.
When you find yourself entranced and involved with a particular composition--or assigned to write a paper on it--the line or two (or paragraph, if you're lucky) given to it in most musical reference works just isn't enough. The Cambridge Music Handbooks, edited by Julian Rushton, help to plug the hole. In this volume, David Brodbeck examines the genesis of Brahms's Symphony No. 1, from its uncertain beginnings to its completion, along with a look at its "structure and meaning" throughout. Accessible in its approach (there are a few musical examples, but the musically illiterate should find them too few to be a hindrance) and in its language, this book will be appreciated by the music student and the Brahms aficionado alike.
When you find yourself entranced and involved with a particular composition--or assigned to write a paper on it--the line or two (or paragraph, if you're lucky) given to it in most musical reference works just isn't enough. The Cambridge Music Handbooks, edited by Julian Rushton, help to plug the hole. In this volume, David Brodbeck examines the genesis of Brahms's Symphony No. 1, from its uncertain beginnings to its completion, along with a look at its "structure and meaning" throughout. Accessible in its approach (there are a few musical examples, but the musically illiterate should find them too few to be a hindrance) and in its language, this book will be appreciated by the music student and the Brahms aficionado alike.
I Love Brahms!
"The classical composer par excellence of the present day, who free from any provincialism of expression or national dialect... writes for the whole world and for all time -- a giant, lofty and unapproachable -- Johannes Brahms."
-- Edward Elgar, 1886
Johannes Brahms - Concerto No 2 - Dramatic Performance!
Johannes Brahms: A Biography
Johannes Brahms: A Biography
Amazon Price: $14.28 (as of 12/17/2009)
A definitive work about one of the 19th century's most influential classical music composers. Books coming out in anniversary years too often don't live up to the subject they celebrate. Such is most definitely not the case in Swafford's biography of Brahms, published on the 100th anniversary of his death. This is an exceptionally well written chronicle of this musical master, an extraordinary work, guaranteed to inform and entertain classical music aficionados and tyros alike. That Swafford (Charles Ives: A Life in Music, 1996) had no easy task is clear. Where some leave long paper trails, Brahms, hoping to let his music rather than his personal life be the legacy on which later generations judged him, destroyed countless personal documents, letters, and music scores he deemed unworthy or compromising. But where Brahms was exceptionally careful--he even signed his name ``J. Br'' to thwart hungry autograph seekers--those around him were not, notably Clara Schumann. A brilliant professional pianist, Frau Schumann, who was married to composer Robert Schumann, was the love of Brahms's life. In their decades-long relationship, they exchanged hundreds of letters, many of which still exist despite Brahms's attempts to get them returned. The letters are simultaneously touching revelations of their relationship--likely never consummated--and perceptive journals of an exciting musical era. Swafford uses the correspondence and other research to paint an exhaustive picture of that era and of Brahms himself. What emerges is a stimulating view of a living paradox, a misogynist who used women as his muse, a generous spirit whose barbed tongue often alienated his best friends. In between, Swafford cleverly uses some 64 musical examples to illustrate Brahms's many musical developments. For readers of Swafford's biography, Brahms's Lullaby will never sound the same.
Brahms in 1873
Hungarian Dance No. 5 (by Johannes Brahms)
Conductor: Boian Videnoff
J. Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 - Boian Videnoff
Boian Videnoff, conductor (19 years old) Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5 Shenyang, China Liaoning Grand Theatre December 31, 2006 For further information please visit: http://www.boianvidenoff.com
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Program Notes on Famous Brahms Works (Part 1)
- Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Brahms)
- Brahms waited until he was forty-nine years of age before he produced his first symphony. Rumors of its coming preceded it many years, but when the composer was questioned about them he only remarked that there had been one C minor (Beethoven's Fifth), and there was no need of another. In the autumn of 1876, however, it made its appearance, and created an enthusiasm which found its most flattering expression in Von Bülow's remark: "We have at last a Tenth symphony.".
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - Symphony No. 2 in D Major. Op. 73 (Brahms)
- The Second Symphony of Brahms was finished in 1877. Only a year had intervened since his début in this important field of music, but the second work is widely different from the first in its general character. It is distinguished by cheerfulness, repose, and almost pastoral simplicity, and betokens peaceful existence.
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - Symphony No. 3 in F Major. Op. 90 - Brahms
- Brahm's Third Symphony, first performed at one of the concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic Society, December 2, 1883, is undoubtedly the most popular of the series for the reason that it is clearer in its general construction than the others. At the same time, while less complicated and elaborate in its development, it is not lacking in ideas of a thoroughly poetical kind and in great variety of color.
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK
I Hate Brahms!
"The real Brahms is nothing more than a sentimental voluptuary... He is the most wanton of composers... Only his wantonness is not vicious; it is that of a great baby... rather tiresomely addicted to dressing himself up as Handel or Beethoven and making a prolonged and intolerable noise."
-- George Bernard Shaw, 1893
Brahms Music on CD
Johannes Brahms: The Symphonies
Amazon Price: $27.99 (as of 12/17/2009)
Brahms: Concertos for Piano No. 1 & 2, Fantasia Op. 116
Amazon Price: $23.98 (as of 12/17/2009)
Brahms: Hungarian Dances Nos. 1-21
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 12/17/2009)
Johannes Brahms Photo and Signature
Brahms - A German Requiem - 1st Movement
Conductor: Claudio Abbado. Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic.
Brahms: A German Requiem (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Brahms: A German Requiem (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Amazon Price: $26.99 (as of 12/17/2009)
The German Requiem is Brahms' largest work, written for orchestra, chorus and two soloists. It made Brahms an international name, and the scope and technique of the composition brought him not only a new audience but also comparison with Bach and Beethoven. In the past fifty years it has found new critical support as an original and progressive work. This detailed study examines its history and controversial reception, analyzes its textual and musical structure, and discusses performing traditions from Brahms' time until the present.
Program Notes on Famous Brahms Works (Part 2)
- "Academic" Overture. Op. 80 - Brahms
- The cheerful, breezy, jovial "Academic" Overture was written by Brahms as a tribute of gratitude to the University of Breslau for conferring upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It, as well as the "Tragic" Overture, was produced in that city in 1881 under his own leadership. The overture is clearly enough identified with the University functions and particularly with the students' "Commersbuch." The whole overture is built up on themes taken from that memorable collection of German student songs now famous the world over, and some of them pleasantly familiar to our own colleges.
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - German Requiem - Brahms
- The "German Requiem," so called, is not a requiem in its sentiment, nor in any sense, a religious service. It might with more propriety be called a "sacred cantata." The poem is full of consolation for the mourner, of assurances of joy hereafter, of warnings against the pomps and vanities of the world, and closes with the victory of the saint over death and the grave.
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK - Hungarian Dances - Brahms
- The Hungarian Dances were originally written for piano for four hands. How many of them are original with Brahms it is impossible to say. Indeed the old controversy between Remenyi and Brahms, in which the violinist accused the composer of stealing from him, may be fresh in the reader's memory. There is in fact an almost endless number of these dances, some of them modern and some very old, based upon the national Czarda which usually consists of two parts, the one melancholy, the other wild and passionate, reflecting respectively the Magyar and Gypsy spirit.
CLICK ON ABOVE LINK TO READ FULL NOTES ON THIS WORK
Brahms - Op.49, No.4 - Wiegenlied (Lullaby)
Interesting Internet Resources on Johannes Brahms
- Brahms
- Long essay by David Wright on Brahms, and why Brahms was one of the very greatest composers.
- Johannes Brahms
- Musical biography showing the effects of Brahms' personality on his music.
- The Symphony: Johannes Brahms
- Interactive guide to Brahms and his symphonies.
Latest News on Johannes Brahms
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Brahms on a 1983 German Stamp
Show the World You Love Brahms!
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- dc64 dc64 Aug 4, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
- I love classical music! Thanks for a great lens. 5 stars
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- dc64 dc64 Aug 4, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
- I love classical music! Thanks for a great lens. 5 stars
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